CASE STUDY

It is founded by Bill Brain in 1973 and a major

consulting firm worldwide.
They have worked with more than 2500 major corporations in all
parts of the world and having more than 2100 people in 30
offices around 19 countries.
The industry sector they would like to include is Retail, Financial
Services, Medical, Entertainment, Technology, And
Environmental Services.
They work with governments and the businesses alike and the
clients of firms have included the governments of japan as well as
Korea.

BRAIN & CO. MANAGEMENT CONSULTING
FIRM
They also provide consulting services to
non-profit organizations, such as San Franciscos
efforts to address homelessness and the National
Resources Defense Councils objective of dealing with global
warming and climate change.
Bain has recently created the Bridgespan group as a subsidiary
dedicated to serving the non-profit sector.
THE BAIN CONSULTANT
Bain is known for the shrewd, and suave employees.
The Bain consultant tends to be Articulate, Meticulously
Groomed, Well-mannered, And Exceedingly Charming.
There employees are notoriously secretive about their
organization and their clients and dedicate themselves to
improve their customers competitive position.
Business is a war their clients must win.
NEW TYPES OF CONSULTANTS
In 1973, William W. Bill Bain created a new type
of management consultant role a quasi-insider who
is privy to the clients secrets and works directly with the CEO
to implement the strategy.
Bill Bain is known as the creator of Relationship Consulting.
The consultants build their business on the close relationship they
develop with the clients.
Bain focuses on the total system, and on the profitability of the
entire organization.
Such knowledge demands lots of data gathering and a great deal
of time for analysis.


Bain consultants insist on working directly with the
chief executives, because they feel that the CEO is
the key to a firms success.
Other consultants may come in and study a situation, write up a
report with recommendations, and then leave.
This is not Bains approach.
Bain consultants work collaboratively with the client to study,
define, and assist in the implementation of the solution.
And because Bains consultants have experience working with
such a wide group of clients, they tend not to have the tunnel
vision that too often afflicts employees within an organization.
The company CEOs may know their organization
and their industry, but may not be able to bring
in new ideas from across a multitude of industries
and countries.
WHY BAIN IS DIFFERENT
According to Bain, some of the things that make this
consulting company unique are:
Rejecting the old advice model to focus on strategy and
implementation.
Accepting equity in lieu of fees to align incentives with clients
results.
Founding the Bridgespan Group, the first major non-profit
strategy consulting firm.
Sharing client, incubated, and private capital coin-investments
among all professional staff.
Cheer Leader
Path Finder
Persuader
Stabilizer Analyzer
Effectiveness
Low
High
Low
High



M
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a
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Q:1 Do you agree with the relationship
consulting approach?
Yes, Bill Bain is known as the creator of relationship
consulting.
They place a great emphasis on efficiency and gives little
emphasis to the member satisfaction.
Practitioners of analyzer style may be quite confrontational,
usually relying on authority to resolve conflicts and on rational
problem-solving processes.
The analyzer style has a background of specialized expertise,
knowledge, and experience applicable to the solution of specific
problem.
The clients needs to have a problem solved,
and a service performed. The OD practitioners
takes responsibility for providing them these
functions.
These style is based on the belief that the clients does not need to
know or cannot learn the skill to solve its problems.
The success of practitioners is largely dependent on the clients
having properly diagnosed its problem and called in the right
kind of practitioner.
Q:2 Visit Bains Website (www.bain.com) and
explore the firms current approaches to
consulting?
Bain approaches every client's business as if it were its own.
They believe a consulting firm should be more than an advisor.
They put themselves in their clients' shoes, align the incentives
with their objectives, and collaborate to unlock the full potential
of their business. This builds deep and enjoyable relationships.

They focuse on results long before it became
fashionable, and continue to raise the bar for the
industry. True Results require tailored solutions
not limited by boundaries of departments, industries, geographies,
or hierarchies. True Results are pragmatic and action-oriented,
enduring and repeatable.

Advantage For External Practitioners:
They have increased leverage (the degree of influence and
status within the clients system) and a greater freedom of
operation than the internal practitioners.
The top managers view the external practitioners as having a
more positive role in large-scale change programs than internal
practitioners.

Q:3 Contrast the approach of a company trying to
solve its own problems versus bringing in
outside consultants. What are the pros and
cons of the two approaches?

Disadvantage For External Practitioners:
They are generally unfamiliar with the organization
system and may not have sufficient knowledge of
its technology.
They are unfamiliar with the culture, communication networks,
and a formal or informal power systems.
They may face difficulties gathering pertinent information simply
because they are the outsiders.
They are familiar with the organizations culture and
norms, and probably accept and behave in
accordance with the norms.
They know the power structure, who are the strategic people
and how to apply leverage.
They are already known to the employees and have a personal
interest in seeing the organization succeed.



Advantages Of Internal Practitioners:

Disadvantage For Internal Practitioners:
They may lack in the specialized skills needed for
organization development.
There is lack of objectivity.
They may sometimes not understand the practitioners role and
will certainly be influenced by his or her previous work and the
relationships in the organization, particularly if the work and
relationships have in any way been questionable.
They may not have necessary powers and authorities sometimes.
They are sometimes in remote staff position and report to a mid-
level managers.